Collecting, Painting and Gaming in the Oldhammer way on this side of the pond.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Way back machine - And we are back.

Way Back Machine - Black Sun (GW Mail Order)

And Current Events - Adepticon And Oldhammer Spain!

Hello, Been a while, and life gets in the way. Almost died twice, but recovering. so here is something very cool for anyone who used to order mail order long ago. Along with your White Dwarf Subscription you could get copies of the Black Sun. The post cost being what they were, I never got he subscription but I had heard of these at a convention a long time ago in the late 80s. But Black Sun was a way for them to push new products in mail order share a few laughs and discuss with the "pack" of Subscribers! After all, if you subscribe you were just as mad as they were!

Games Workshop USA in the late 90's also put out the Troll magazine with White Dwarf to subscribers, including things like conversion of the month and special deals on figs (or at least packages).

I'm including scans of Issue 2 (Sept/Oct 1984). I believe due to the discussion about Origins that this one is from 1984.The credits state it was put together by Steve Williams And Robert Neville with Illustration by Trevor Hammond. Clive Thompson, Ian Marsh and Marc Gascoigne assisted with Shelagh Dwyer doing the layout. It was short lived, but lets see what is in there:

This is a bit different, as it was more about what Games Workshop was selling through their mail order back in 1984, so covers Star Trek, Ringworld and a whole host of other things. However, some sharp art by Mr, Hammond, some great joke pages, and it does capture that feeling of the 80s. The same sense of humor gave us a lot of the greatest moments in Warhammer!

I'm sure some of the other issues mention the figures, or Warhammer itself. But here we go:

Here is the Cover!

Wonder who Man-thing 5714611 was and what the number signified (if anything).

Page 3 - Talks about new releases and what will be coming in.

More New stuff, and very vocal put downs on prices, packaging and even TSR! Very Snarky.

Right, can you imagine current GW requesting Torture Tips? I like the art style too, again, by trevor Hammond

Chaosium did SF with Ringword. Very interesting review.

The basement...err Catacomb clear out for Mail Order. We had Bob's Bargain Basement when I was at GW USA .

Tongue in Cheek bit for all you who cheated with the Fighting Fantasy series!

They brought this out at Games Day. They got quite a bit of money by printing the old games over there for american companies. a lot better than paying shipping. Unfortunately it has gotten a lot more expensive recently. Be weird if we go back to those days.

Review of fanzines and other pubs.....wow, haven't even heard of most of these.

And what old school 'zine/advertisement would not have the old competition Quiz? Place your answers in the comment section below :)!

OK, so some memories from the mid-80s for those of us who were alive back then. And maybe something you have never seen. this remains the only issue of Black Sun that I have personally owned, and I have no idea how many their actually were. I'm not sure if this team made a bunch or if someone else had to take over. I do think Mike Brunton and Tim Pollard might be able to answer some of this.

I know there are more of these out there, and I'd love to see some copies of them. So if you have them please get in touch with me.

Below are the links to the PDFs Laid out. You have to print them back to back, then fold them in half as a "magazine". But they are better quality then the jpgs I put in this piece. Enjoy. And if you have any others, please send me a message in the comments below or scans of yours!

On the other front, We just had a great few days of gaming at Adepticon where "Orclord" from Stuff of Legends, Rusty and Caius (of the building goblin Doom Diver that was not allowed to fire!) hosted an incredible game with Orcs rampaging across the river at the Stalwart Empire (Damn those guns!). I can't do it justice on this post, so I plan another for the game itself, but here is just one picture: (I will state though I could only attend 1 day for crappy reasons, it was a BLAST!)

Reserves are off the table (you can see just some of the Orcs & Gobbo reserves at the top of the picture). Though it may not look it, the Orcs did get into the and over the emplacements! And this game also had 2 Old school Citadel Giants (mine adn Orclord's!

On the forthcoming Oldhammer front, the guys are planning on games at Historicon, and a weekend in October (Oldhammer USA Weekend #3!) in VA. In fact they are working on getting the date together so come on to Oldhammer In The New World Facebook Page to find out more and keep up to date (Plus find a bunch of us Oldahmmer Loons right here in the states!) We are still finding more and more people who have not seen this or did not know we were having Oldhammer Weekends...so lets find more to join us!

Some incredible minis in the Oldhammer Spain Case - Can't wait to see the close ups on the blogs out there!

Right now the Oldhammer Spain guys are having their first Weekend, and it looks fantastic. and guys if anyone knows how to get me one of those shirts - please let me know - size XXL! :) I'll pay!

I want one - I'll pay for it and shipping - Contact me please!

I started this blog a long time ago, in order to try to get some kind of get together for Oldhammer here in the States. I've been lucky enough to meet some great people, get together and have some great times and games! Congrats on doing the same Spain! So glad to see this still growing. Now my next blog is almost done. Its been hard, but I think it will be worth it! See you soon!

7 comments:

Good stuff. I'm glad you're doing a post just on Richard's game, I was going to tell you to do as I say not as I do as far as cramming so much information into one post. I also need to remember that when Richard says "is anyone else going to Adepticon?" that a game like this is what's happening. I'll message you about some other things we can do to include more people or get the word out more.

That was the first run of Black Sun, before Tim Pollards version, and there were 8 issues IIRC. Most of the artwork was done by Trevor Hammond, who was a regular contributor to White Dwarf back in the day, you can see more of Black Sun and other of his works at: http://pitfiend.blogspot.co.uk

I was wondering about that, I knew Tim had worked on some of them, I did not know if it was later or different, so thanks for that info. And thanks for the link, hopefully some more people have some copies and get them scanned in. Thanks!

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About Me

Hailing from the arctic tundra otherwise known as Michigan, I
started gaming back in the mists of time. I have been a huge fan of
Warhammer and GW ever since. But frustration mounted as the armies
became too similar - the epiphany hit me at Adepticon a few years ago,
when just about every army looked so similar to mine (was playing Dwarfs
and yes, most were painted better than mine) but all using the same few
bits to make our armies. And I started longing for those long ago
armies where every figure was different, and my army would look nothing
like yours, even if we played the same race! I discovered like minded
people online (but mostly across the pond)- my passion was rekindled by
Oldhammer! Now it is my goal to bring the concepts of Oldhammer to the
masses here in the New World. But if you have ever felt that the passion
and art that was on display in those incredible little statues made by
the legends of our genre was the best of times, come with me and
rediscover that little golden glow when you get that lead in your hand!
If you collect old models, like painting the miniatures, or love gaming
with some of the older rules, join us on our journey of Oldhammer In The
New World!